Korngold Violin

Both concertos on this new disc were written when their composers were in the USA around the time of World War II: the Korngold was completed in 1945, the Britten in 1939. In the course of the 1930s Korngold, an Austrian Jew, had become a prominent Hollywood composer, but could not return to his homeland after 1938; the young Britten, a pacifist, left the UK for New York shortly before the declaration of war in 1939. Both composers had been child prodigies and both concertos are centred around the key of D, the most ‘natural’ key on the violin and the tonal focus for the violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky

“Performing contemporary music had added immeasurably to the way I play Tchaikovsky’s Concerto,” writes violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the liner notes to her 2nd recording of the work in 20 years. To be more precise, what performing contemporary music has added to Mutter’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s concerto is an abrasive tone, an aggressive technique, & an interpretation that treats Tchaikovsky’s tender little concerto as if it were a lover who liked it rough & raw. Although there is no denying Mutter’s virtuosity, her performance is at best willful & at worst wrongful.

"Performing contemporary music had added immeasurably to the way I play Tchaikovsky's Concerto," writes violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the liner notes to her second recording of the work in 20 years. To be more precise, what performing contemporary music has added to Mutter's performance of Tchaikovsky's concerto is an abrasive tone, an aggressive technique, and an interpretation that treats Tchaikovsky's tender little concerto as if it were a lover who liked it rough and raw. Although there is no denying Mutter's virtuosity, her performance is at best willful and at worst wrongful.

Korngold began work on his Violin Concerto in 1937, following his father’s suggestion that the main theme from his score for the Errol Flynn epic Another Dawn would make a good basis for a concerto. The work remained dormant while Korngold was exiled to Hollywood after the Anschluss. He resumed work on it in 1945, and fully revised it. Premiered by Jascha Heifetz in 1947, the Concerto is widely performed and recorded, and is certainly Korngold’s best-known concert work. Widely considered the greatest composer-prodigy since Mozart, Korngold composed the String Sextet in 1914, when he was only seventeen years old. It shows his fully developed style and assured idiomatic writing for the ensemble. Andrew Haveron leads the Sinfonia of London Chamber Ensemble in the Sextet, and is joined by John Wilson and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the Violin Concerto.